The discrepancy between the decreased support for women as political leaders and the increased percentage of women in parliament in post-coup d état Madagascar Laura Asperholm Hedlund Department of Government Minor Field Study 2016 Words: 13 503 Supervisor: Pär Zetterberg
Table of Contents 1 Introduction... 3 1.2 Purpose of the study... 4 2 Theory... 4 2.1 How can we understand the decrease in support for women as political leaders?... 4 2.1.1 Political culture... 5 2.1.2 Gender stereotypes... 5 2.1.3 Media Bias... 7 2.1.4 Issue Ownership... 8 2.2 Theories to understand the increase of women in parliament... 9 2.2.1 Women s mobilization and Civil Society... 9 2.2.2 Gender Quotas... 10 2.2.3 The role of political parties and elites... 11 2.2.4 International pressure... 12 2.2.5 Effects of post conflict and democratic transition... 13 3 Method and Data... 14 3.1 Collection of data and material... 14 3.1.1 Interviews... 14 3.1.2 The Afrobarometer... 15 3.1.3 Inter-Parliamentary Union... 16 3.2 Delimitations... 16 3.3 Limitations of the study... 16 3.4 Source criticism... 17 3.5 Research ethics... 18 4 Madagascar... 18 4.1 Understanding the Malagasy history and political system... 18 4.1.1 History... 18 4.1.2 Political system... 19 5 Results and Discussion... 20 5.1 Decrease in support for women as political leaders... 21 5.1.1 Political culture... 22 5.1.2 Gender stereotypes... 24 5.1.3 Media bias... 25 5.1.4 Issue ownership... 26 5.2 Increase of women s political representation in parliament... 27 5.2.1 Women s mobilization and civil society... 27 1
5.2.2 Gender quotas... 28 5.2.3 The role of political parties and elites... 29 5.2.4 International pressure... 30 5.2.5 Effects of post conflict and democratic transition... 30 6 Conclusion... 32 7 References... 33 7.1 Articles... 33 7.2 Internet Sources... 35 2
1 Introduction One of the most important aspects of political participation is the opportunity to register as a candidate, to campaign, to be elected and to hold office in all levels of government (UN, Political participation, Chapter 3). The right to seek representation in legislative is crucial for democracy and legitimacy, yet worldwide women only hold 22 % of the seats in parliament. At the current rate, parliaments will not be equal until the beginning of the twenty second century. Furthermore, there are great international differences - the percentage of women in parliament varies from 63 percent in Rwanda to 0 percent in Yemen (Wängnerud, 2009, p.52; Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p.127). So, what hinders or facilitates women to obtain political representation? Research shows that majoritarian electoral systems, low levels of democratization, low levels of female participation in the labour force, low socioeconomic development and traditional attitudes can serve as obstacles for women s political representation (Wängnerud, 2009, p. 60; Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p.130; Paxton & Kunovich, 2003, p.89). Contrariwise, proportional election systems, quotas, high level of democratization and egalitarian attitudes toward women have proved to facilitate women s political representation. The electoral system, democratization level, female participation in the labour force and socioeconomic development are referred to as institutional and structural factors and can explain certain sides of equal or unequal representation (Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p.129, Norris & Inglehart, 2008, p.6). Though neither institutional nor structural factors can motivate why countries with similar institutions and structures can have such big gender differences in terms of representation. Nor can they explain why countries that have less developed structures or institutions can have a higher representation of women than countries with highly developed institutions and structures (Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p.129). This indicates that even though institutional and structural factors are important to understand obstacles or facilitators for women s representation, something else obviously plays a major role. Scholars therefore turn to cultural factors as a possible explanation. One important cultural factor for women s representation are the public s attitudes toward women s political leadership which in turn be affected by political culture, attitudes toward women in general, gender stereotypes and the media s portrayal of women. All of these factors influence both supply and demand for women s political leadership - how willing women are to candidate and how willing the electorate is to vote for them (Hill, 1981, p.168). Attitudes toward women as political leaders can often serve as predictors of how equal a country s parliament will be - positive attitudes toward women s political leadership often correlate with a higher percentage of women in parliament (Norris & Inglehart, p.131-134). However, in Madagascar, this is not the case. Since ten years back, attitudes toward women as political leaders in Madagascar have become worse and worse, meanwhile the percentage of women in parliament has increased. In 2005, 82 percent agreed that women should have the same chance of being elected to political office as men while in 2015 only 61 percent agree with that statement. Madagascar that used to be in the top five amongst African 3
countries can now be found in the bottom, far below the African average. In 2005, women constituted 3.75 percent of the parliament. To date, 20.57 percent of the parliamentarians are women - an increase of almost 18 percent over ten years (Afrobarometer, 2015 IPU, 2014). Furthermore, Madagascar has, during this time period, also had a military coup and is now in the process of democratic transition (Jütersonke & Kartas, 2010, p.6.). 1.2 Purpose of the study Madagascar is 1. A post conflict country in democratic transition, 2. Has a steep decrease in support for women as political leaders but also 3. A notable increase of percentage of women in parliament. Given that this discrepancy between attitudes and representation contradicts previous research in combination with the post-coup d état context in Madagascar, it becomes an interesting country to analyze. The purpose of this study is therefore to more in depth understand the discrepancy between the decrease in support for women as political leaders on the one hand, and the increased percentage of women in parliament on the other, from before to after the coup d état in Madagascar. To fulfill this purpose I have conducted a Minor Field Study in Madagascar from July to September 2015. 2 Theory This study focuses on descriptive representation, which is the first step towards equal representation and means that the representatives in a legislature actually reflect the composition of their constituency - true representation can only be achieved when the legislature corresponds with the population of the whole nation (Pitkin, 1967, p. 60, Wängnerud, 2009, p. 52). Phillips (1995, p.127), also argues that interests are better represented if those who represent them are actually members of the group for which they speak. In other words, the interests of women are best represented by women and it is therefore crucial for democracy to understand what facilitates or hinders women to obtain political representation. In the case of Madagascar, cultural factors like attitudes towards women have worsened without apparent reasons, and while they normally function as a predictor for women s representation, they cannot explain the increased percentage of women in parliament in the last ten years. The theories that follow under 2.1 therefore aim to give a better understanding of the decrease in support for women as political leaders and the theories under 2.2 aim to give a better understanding of the increase of women s descriptive representation. 2.1 How can we understand the decrease in support for women as political leaders? A lot of factors can have a potential effect how the public feel about women s political leadership. An traditional political culture for example, tend to lead to negative attitudes toward women as political leaders, gender stereotypes where women are associated with qualities deemed unsuitable for leaders can have an impact, media bias that (under)represent women in politics in an unfavorable way can have effects and when women are considered 4
lacking competence to handle a certain issue, the confidence in women s political leadership might decrease. 2.1.1 Political culture Political culture may be described as the embodiment of the attitudes and values of a society, which define the roles an individual may play in the political process (Stockemer, 2007, p.483). In other words, depending on attitudes and values in society, individuals participating in the political sphere can be defined in different ways. For example, research shows that in many cultures we are simply taught to think that men are better political leaders than women while in others, attitudes toward and values of women are more equal (Hill, 1981, p.160). Scholars often speak of traditional versus egalitarian political cultures. So called traditional cultures consider the women s primary role to be at home with children whilst men are breadwinners and society leaders. Egalitarian cultures on the other hand, tend to have a strong women s movement, established belief in feminism, equality in the home and workplace and acceptance of government intervention to promote gender equality. A political culture with traditional attitudes, as opposed to egalitarian attitudes, toward women tend to lead to negative attitudes toward women as political leaders while a political culture with egalitarian attitudes tend to lead to more accepting attitudes toward women s political leadership. Furthermore, research shows that these attitudes has negative or positive implications for women candidates when the electorate, but also gatekeepers like political parties and elites, evaluate them (Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p.130-133, Hill, 1981, p. 160). Political culture is therefore a plausible explanation to why Scandinavian countries that have more egalitarian cultures also have better attitudes towards women s political leadership and higher representation of women compared to other European countries with similar institutions and structures that have more traditional political cultures (Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p.131). Moreover, in traditional cultures the public and gatekeepers like political elites and media are more likely to discourage women s participation in legislative politics in order to maintain the male status quo that is coherent with their attitudes and values (Stockemer, 2006, p.483). Contrarily, especially in secular, advanced and industrialized countries that embrace post-materialistic values, traditional attitudes are challenged and attitudes towards women's political leadership and entry into politics are facilitated. Additionally, egalitarian attitudes also challenge sex roles and make the public more receptive to consider women s issues thus increasing the demand for women s political representation (Paxton & Kunovich, 2003, p.93, Inglehart & Baker, 2000, p.20). 2.1.2 Gender stereotypes Gender stereotypes are perceptions about what different behaviors, personality traits and roles are appropriate for women and men. A typical female stereotype is caring, compassionate and emotional while a typical male stereotype is tough, assertive and decisive (Bauer, 2014, p.693). These stereotypes are transferred when evaluating what behaviors, traits and roles are 5
appropriate for political leaders. In politics, the male stereotype typically serve as a bias where masculine stereotypes better match the expectations that people have on political leadership - a strong and assertive person capable of making tough decisions. The stereotypically feminine counterpart on the other hand, contradicts those expectations and can therefore inflict negative attitudes toward women s political leadership (Paxton, 2003, p.905). Scholars debate the extent to which gender stereotypes affect the public s attitudes toward women as political leaders and whether they can actually be helpful in certain contexts. Sometimes, typical female qualities, like for example honesty and empathy, can be in demand in politics. When female candidates are associated with demanded traits for political leaders, they can actually use people s stereotypes in a positive way and through them gain support. Though in other situations, female stereotypes can inflict negative attitudes toward women s political leadership when voters consider female candidates lacking qualities that are deemed necessary to be a political leader (Bauer, 2014, p. 695). Women more so than men therefore have to be strategic when they candidate and make public appearances, shaping their message to the public so that it matches their demands. If they describe themselves as caring or compassionate leaders when the public instead requires a strong and assertive leader, support from the public can be lost. But if they instead avoid invoking feminine stereotypes, voters will also avoid evaluating them in a stereotyped way (Herrnson, 2003, p.251). Activation of gender stereotypes can occur under different conditions and be more or less strong. Research shows that so called priming, exposure to a stimulus, depending on if it is gender biased or gender neutral can have an effect on the activation of gender stereotypes (Banaji & Hardin, 1996, p.141). A male biased environment can activate negative gender stereotypes toward women, while a gender neutral environment can compensate and prohibit the activation of these stereotypes. Thus, a more gender neutral environment prevents situations where people, or voters, use negative stereotypes to evaluate women as political leaders while a male biased environment on the other hand, can prime votes to activate negative stereotypes toward women (Ibid, p.140). For example, biased language where a politician is always described as a he can function as priming that activates gender stereotypes. Gender specific professional titles will have the same effect, activating gender stereotypes that affect a person s attitude as to which sex is more suitable for a certain profession; policemen, firemen and midwife are some explicit examples (Lassonde & O Brien, 2013, p.388). Though, while the above mentioned occupations are pronounced male or female, there are numerous professions that are implicitly gender stereotyped, like for example in the case of politicians (but also nurses, doctors and plumbers etc.). Our previous experience of the ratio of women versus men that we associate with a certain profession affects our attitudes toward a person s suitability to have it and even if that gender ratio becomes more equal, we tend to hold on to our stereotypes. So, even if more women enter politics, learned gender stereotypes based on previous experience can make negative attitudes toward women as political leaders persistent (Lassonde & O Brien, 1996, p.389, 394). 6
Also pictures can activate gender stereotyping (Banaji & Hardin, 1996, p.140). Simply seeing a picture of a man in a certain context over and over can activate male biased stereotypes. If for example, the media always show male politicians a vicious circle can be created where male dominated spheres like politics, comes to be considered less suitable for women. White and White (2006, p.265) call attention to the fact that occupational male bias will not change if there aren't more women participating in those occupations. If people are systematically exposed to men in certain profession, gender stereotype activation will continue to reinforce prevailing negative attitudes that we have towards women in those professions. 2.1.3 Media Bias Research shows that there are mainly three ways in which the media shape the public s view of women as political leaders in a negative way: 1. female politicians are represented more negatively than their male counterparts, 2. articles about female politicians are more scarce than articles about male politicians and 3. relationships between men and women are portrayed in a way that emphasizes traditional attitudes and gender roles (Wood, 1994, p.31). Negative exposure Attitudes toward women as political leaders are proved to be affected by trivialization, marginalization and commodification. Trivialization is the tendency in which media emphasizes personal and corporeal characteristics rather than focusing on women s policy positions and leadership. Even when successful in winning a top position, women are often subjected to marginalization by the media. For example, former Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir s and Germany s Chancellor Angela Merkel s sexuality and outfits were/are often evaluated just as much as their politics. Media also uses specifically gendered language when describing female politicians. For example, women are harsh and hysterical while men are assertive and authoritative. Female politicians are also often subjected to commodification where they are first and foremost female, and secondly leaders - women are their sex more than their profession while the inverse is true for men (Wood, 1994, p.33-34). Underrepresentation Women politicians are represented less in the media, which leads the public to both believe that there is (even) more male politicians than female, and that men are the cultural standard in society (Wood, 1994, p.31). Research shows that were the societal image shown by the media true, the world would consist of about 70 percent white men. Were we to believe the media s portrayal of women, we would assume that there are very few and the ones that do exist are almost always young, thin and beautiful. Just like the men, women are white and heterosexual. In other words, women s limited and unfavorable exposure in the media gives a very skewed and negative image of women, and often contributes to negative attitudes toward women and also leading the public to assume that there are very few women in available to participate in politics. In fact, even female politicians that are already elected and serving in office get less exposure than their male counterparts further reinforcing the belief that women in politics is rare. Furthermore, female journalists and women in leadership positions within 7
media are often more scarce than men, possibly increasing the risk for even less exposure to women if men prefer to write about other men (Wood, 1994, p. 32, North, 2009). Additionally, research also suggests that exposure to the news media for the public has an impact on attitudes toward women s political leadership. Higher exposures of news media where the public get exposed to more information tend to lead to more positive attitudes toward women as political leaders (Norris & Inglehart, 2008, p.14). Relationships Research shows that media has a tendency to depict relationships that reinforce negative stereotypes. In all types of media, from child literature to trash magazines and high end media, women are portrayed as dependent on men, meanwhile men often are portrayed as independent. For example, the little mermaid, a famous Disney character, gives up not only her life and friends but her identity as a mermaid to be with her dreamy man on land, leading children to believe that it is normal for women to depend on, and make sacrifices for, men. Another example is the popular children show The Smurfs where the female smurfs, in contrary to the male smurfs, don t even have names. They are named smurfettes and therefore only have an identity through diminutive relations to male smurfs. In the same way, Hillary Clinton or Beyoncé can be written about in the media as the wife of former president Bill Clinton or Mrs. Carter - they identity is defined in relation to their men. Other typical portrayals of the dichotomy male/female besides women s dependence/men s independence are women s incompetence / men s authority and women as caregivers/ men as breadwinners which further reinforce the stereotype relations that women and men should have to each other. The media in other words reinforces the image of women as standing beside their men who are leaders, rather than being leaders themselves which in turn can have effects on how the public look at women as political leaders (Wood, 1994, p. 33-36, Ross et al, 2013, p.6-7). 2.1.4 Issue Ownership Issue ownership theory says that if the public thinks that a certain candidate has a better ability to solve a certain problem they find important at the time, they have issue ownership and will be favored over other candidates. The voter will even neglect their ideological convictions and show bias to the candidate deemed most committed and competent to doing something about a certain problem (Petrocik, 1996, p.825-827). Attitudes toward candidates and politicians, and even outcomes of elections can therefore reflect the current concerns of the voter rather than their political beliefs or the suitability of the candidate. The typical issue ownership voter is generally lacking a clear preference about policy issues, not certain what represents a serious problem and sees elections as choices about solving problems (Ibid, 1996, p.830). Issue handling competence is key when determining who has issue ownership. Party affiliation can be a major source of information when deciding who has issue handling competence. A candidate from an environmental party, for example, can be assumed to be more competent to handle issues concerning exhaustion. But also personal characteristics can 8
determine ownership of a certain issue; a candidate who is a former lawyer can be deemed more fit to handle issues regarding justice, a war hero can be seen as more fit to give expertise in matters of state security, and a woman can be assumed to have issue ownership when it comes to child care policy or education (ibid, 1996, p. 847). Gender has been proved to be a strong determinate when it comes to issue ownership. Research shows that there are persistent gendered issues that the public generally think that women have better handling competence to deal with. Women have issue ownership over Compassion issues like poverty, education, health, childcare are while they are deemed worse at handling instrumental issues like security, big business and defense. Expectations about how well men and women handle different issues are in fact one of the strongest form of political gender stereotyping (Huddy & Terkildsen, 1993, p. 120). 2.2 Theories to understand the increase of women in parliament There are a number of factors that give an understanding to an increase of women s political representation in spite of increasingly negative attitudes toward women as political leaders: women and civil society mobilizing themselves to increase representation, gender quotas to ensure seats for women, political parties and elites recognizing the strategic advantages to pursue a more gender equal representation, international pressure and effects of post conflict and democratic transition can all have a positive impact on women s political representation. 2.2.1 Women s mobilization and Civil Society One of the strongest drivers to increased representation is women themselves. Even when (often male) political elites make decision to take action in order to increase gender equality, it rarely comes without initial mobilization and promotion from women. It is when women perceive change as necessary and mobilize that changes are made (Brown, Donaghy, Machay & Meehan, 2002, p.72). Many types of assemblies have been proved to have an impact on women s increased representation: grass root women s movements, cross-partisan networks, transnational women's networks, women s organizations within political parties and individual women lobbying for political change. All of these actors work nationally and internationally to promote women s representation through gatherings, projects and seminars aimed at increasing women s representation. Women push male political elites to change the rules of the game through lobbying leaders to promote women. Female politicians put pressure within their own parties to make sure women s representation is on the agenda (Krook, 2007, p. 370). Though many scholars point out that in spite of women s mobilization, a well-placed male elite embracing their proposition, making it his own cause and pressuring party, colleagues and public, is often crucial (Brown et al, 2002, p.82). Scholars note the importance of civil society, who plays an important role in advocating for women s increased representation by educating and sharing information. They have an 9
especially important role in societies where initiatives from government, political elites and the international community are absent. Civil society can be defined as people who have common interests and associate to achieve common goals. Civil society consists of actors outside the state, family and market: NGOs, grassroots women s movements, women s movements organizations, women s sections inside the political parties, cross-partisan networks from different political parties and finally individual women working toward a cause. Women mobilizing and civil society therefore often overlaps but together they play an important role in advocating for women s increased representation (Krook, 2007, p. 373). According to research, the work of civil society when it comes to supporting women to get into politics in the first place is key. For example, working with political parties and pushing them improve internal structures and to promote their women candidates, awareness-raising to improve the public's attitudes toward women s political leadership, working with media to prevent gender stereotypical reporting and increase exposure for women, helping educational institutions to inform the public and stakeholders about the importance of women s representation and working with governments and parliaments to institutionalize gender equality in structures and policies (Karam & Lovenduski, 2005, p.209). 2.2.2 Gender Quotas Scholars distinguish between the fast versus the incremental track to higher representation for women. Costa Rica, for example, increased the percentage of women in parliament from 19 to 35 percent in one election through quotas with forceful implementation. Contrarily, in Denmark, some good 20 years were needed to achieve the same change - by 2001 they had 38 percent women in parliament after an incremental increase that took eight elections (Dahlerup & Friedenvall, 2006, p.4). The two different tracks are often present in different contexts and bring different implications for women s political representation. The incremental track takes a long time, but with development and education women will eventually get a larger proportion of parliamentary seats. When societies chose the incremental track to increase women s political representation, women often face problems like having a lack of resources and smaller network of useful contacts than men. Furthermore, while men are the norm, women have to fight negative gender stereotypes and other hindrances that take a long time to overcome. The incremental track requires a lot of work with capacity-building and puts a large responsibility on the parties to make sure that more women are on the ballots and on civil society to educate the population. Women need to participate to a higher degree in the workforce to have a chance to get into politics, and to do that the need for childcare and parental leave is instrumental. The incremental track is often accompanied by a strong resistance to quotas where different actors say that favoring a certain group goes against the principle of equal opportunity for everyone. Quotas are sometimes even considered to be discriminating to men (Dahlerup & Friedenvall, 2006, p.28). 10
The fast track to increased representation for women contradicts the idea that gradual adaption is needed and often claims that the instrumental track might never lead to equal representation. Informal and formal discrimination toward women is considered important problems that need solutions aimed at overcoming glass ceilings and exclusion of women in politics. Feminist forces are present and clearly state that waiting several generations for equal political representation is not an option. Quotas in one form or another is considered as compensation against institutional, structural and cultural barriers. Parties are gatekeepers and should therefor define formal rules that guarantee a certain proportion of nominated women. The fast track is an instrument to reach equal results, rather than equal opportunities (Dahlerup & Friedenvall, 2006, p. 30). Quotas are measures taken to increase women s representation in legislative and scholars especially debate three different types: reserved seats whereas, the name implies, a number of seats in parliament are reserved just for women, party quotas where the parties through reforms increase the number of female candidates and legislative quotas where parties are obligated by law to nominate a certain percentage of women (Krook, 2007, p. 367-369). When comparing the different types of quotas, research show that there is not one that is more effective than the other. Nordic countries have a tradition with party quotas while Latin American countries mostly have introduced legal quotas and the results show that the latter does not necessarily lead to a higher representation for women than the former. Different systems and societies require different quotas. Initiatives and pressure to implement quotas can come from various different sources: women mobilizing, political elites pursuing strategic benefits, through sharing of international norms, work of the civil society and NGOs or even state actors (Krook, 2007, p.376-378). 2.2.3 The role of political parties and elites Women s mobilization and the increasing number of female parliamentarians has augmented the pressure on and incentive for political parties to further increase the number of women in parliament. Research shows that there can be both normative and strategic incentives for political parties and elites to promote women s political representation. For example, political parties often introduce measures to increase women s representation when other parties do it, when trying to overcome a long period in opposition, after a decline in popularity, after a perceived crisis even to sustain an existing regime. In other words, the motivation often derives from a perceived strategic advantage that could help the party (Caul, 1999, p.94-94). Increased interest to promote women s representation can also come from negative motivation where political elites see the opportunity to handpick compliant women that are easily controlled. In that way they have a puppet for their purposes and to achieve that they promote certain women for candidacy. The promotion of women s representation can also be an empty gesture to try and prove to the public that the party is committed to women s rights and gender equality, but in reality they don t. In these cases if women are elected, they often lack real support from the party afterwards (Krook, 2007, p.371-372). 11
There are a number of characteristics within a party that make a difference for their probability to increased representation for women. Research show that a localized candidate nomination, leftist and post-materialistic values within the party and a high level of institutionalization positively affects parties probability to increase women s representation. Furthermore, the presence of formal gender rules and a high number of women working in the party's internal offices are instrumental in for the party s probability to work towards increased representation for women (Dahlerup, 2005, p. 147, Caul, 1999, p. 91, 94). Additionally, within-party activism, particularly from someone with a high level status in the party, often motivated measures to increase women s representation. Within party activism is more likely to have a positive effect in parties with left and post-materialistic values that see a need for equality within the party and equal representation in parliament because it is coherent with its values (Norris & Lovenduski, 1993, p.57, Brown et al, 2002, p.80). 2.2.4 International pressure As the international women s movement has grown over the past century and worked consistently to institutionalize gender equality, a global pressure for women s inclusion in politics has been created and international norms regarding equal representation have become more and more accepted. Only after the international movement pushed world polity regarding women s political power and representation did it become an important issue on national level. Through the work of international women s organizations and conferences, women s rights were put on the national agenda and researchers now conclude that Women's political representation, once considered unacceptable by politicians and their publics, is now actively encouraged by powerful international actors. (Paxton, 2006, p. 917). After suffrage, which was the initial demand from the international movement, the next step for women s political power was representation. The international women s movement required that women be represented in legislative around the world and of late the international community has pressured nations to have at least 30 percent women in parliament. This demand has accelerated and many INGOs now run 50/50 campaigns to opt for equal representation between women and men (Paxton et al, 2006, p. 916). Ratifying treaties that support women s rights is one important way that the international community functions as a narrative for states. The United Nations Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action (PfA) are two important documents that function as international norms and sources of information regarding women s representation. There are also recommendations from the IPU, the Socialist International, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Commonwealth, The African Union, SADC and the Organization of American States. All of which together and separately put pressure and give normative guidance to help nations improve women s political representation (Krook, 2007, p.373). 12
The international community plays an extra important role to advocate for women s representation in post conflict countries (Krook, 2007, p. 374), pressuring the them to, for example, introduce quotas or make other efforts to increase women s participation and representation. Sometimes the international community also functions as a catalyst for already developed local initiatives to improve women s representatives through funding and guiding but also through giving legitimacy to processes already set in place by showing its support (Collier & Hoeffler, 2002, p.14). 2.2.5 Effects of post conflict and democratic transition A demand for further gender equality and initiatives for an increase of women s representation often come post conflict and in Africa, post-conflict countries have twice as many women in parliament compared to non-post conflict (Tripp, 2015). Due to the quickly changing political environment in democratic transition, women s representation can potentially, in the wake of a conflict, advance faster than normal (Hughes, 2009, p.196-197). Demands for increased representation is also often packed together with other post conflict development initiatives or political reforms designed to increase legitimacy for a new regime (Krook, 2007, p.372). Though political change after a conflict evidently can be a facilitator for women s increased representation, the impact from and role of the women s mobilization, the international community, civil society, gender quotas and political elites and parties to seize this window of opportunity is crucial (Hughes, 2009, p.195). The combination of political openings and international coercion in the wake of a conflict can give a chance for women to seize opportunities for increased representation that otherwise wouldn t exist. As to international coercion, scholars especially stress the impact of so called conditioned aid after a conflict. Countries that have gone through a conflict often suffer consequences of economic and structural ruin that require outside assistance like foreign aid and direct investment. Research shows than when countries are recipients of international aid the likelihood that they will respond to external pressure for change is greater. Therefore, when international aid is received in post-conflict countries, the recipients may be more likely to adopt changes to increase representation of women, especially if the aid is explicitly conditioned with requirements regarding this issue (Hughes, 2009, p.179). Post conflict initiatives to increase women s political representations through quotas are common and can come from different directions. In post conflict situations it is not uncommon for the United Nations to set into place a top-down effort to makes sure a country adopts gender quotas or take other steps to increase women s political representation. One example of is the case of Afghanistan where 27 percent of the lower house seats and 2 seats in each regional council were set aside for women during the post conflict reconstruction. Bottom-down initiatives coming from women s mobilization can also drive change to increase women s political representation post conflict. In Iraq, for example, legislative quotas were introduced post conflict and emerged mainly through the bottom up mobilization of women s groups (Krook, O'brien & Swip, 2010, p.68). 13
Women s mobilization and agency has also been proved to play a key role for an increase of women s representation in post-conflict societies. The efforts of women during and after conflict in societies like Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique have all been crucial to increase women s representation. Even when women are excluded from the peace negotiations the work and lobbying of women s NGO s and INGO s often have a positive impact on women s representation and make a great difference (Krook, O'brien & Swip, 2010, p.74, Brown et al, 2002, p. 80). 3 Method and Data This field study was conducted during nine weeks, from July to September 2015 and was made possible by a MFS scholarship from the Swedish Development Cooperation, Sida. To best match the purpose of this study a primarily qualitative design with some complimenting statistical data was used. To analyze and understand the decrease in support for women as political leaders and the increased percentage of women in parliament during the examined time period interviews with various persons with expertise and/or experience of the subject were conducted. Additionally, to measure how political culture, support for women as political leaders, issue ownership and the role of political elites has changed over time survey data from the Afrobarometer was used to complement the interview data. The increase in the percentage of women in parliament was based on statistics from the IPU. 3.1 Collection of data and material 3.1.1 Interviews Primarily to understand the increase of women in parliament, but also to further understand the decrease in support for women as political leaders, a total of fourteen interviews with 16 people were conducted, of which ten were women and six were men. The interviews were semi structured, in depth and took about 1.5 to 2 hours each and were mostly conducted in the workplace of the interview subject. Most interviews were recorded, the rest were written down, depending on the wishes of the participant. Decrease in support for women as political leaders When choosing interview subjects I tried to find a broad spectrum of people who could give different insights on the subject. In order to understand what role gender stereotypes, political culture, media bias and issue ownership might have played in the decrease in support for women as political leaders from before to after the coup I interviewed the following subjects: gender experts, civil society representatives and political science students. The gender experts were both from NGOs and the international community and they all reported on and worked with projects regarding political culture, gender stereotypes and attitudes toward women as political leaders. Issue ownership and media bias was discussed with all of the subjects that 14
participated in this study, since they all had experience of these issues in the role of citizens and voters. Furthermore, data from the Afrobarometer Survey made it possible to further measure and triangulate interview data concerning the change in political culture, issue ownership and attitudes toward women as political leaders over time. Increase in the percentage of women in parliament To understand the impact of women s mobilization and civil society, gender quotas, political parties and elites, international pressure and effects of post conflict and democratic transition on the increase of women s political representation I interviewed the following subjects: UN representatives, an election expert, an observer from the latest election, a women's rights lawyer, a civil servant i the current government, representatives from civil society organizations focused on increasing women s representation and organizations working with female candidates and incumbents. While civil society representatives gave valuable insight on most issues, the lawyer and civil servant was crucial to understand gender quotas and the role of political parties and elites respectively. UN representatives, the election expert and the election observer gave valuable information regarding the role of the international community and the effect of post conflict and transition. 3.1.2 The Afrobarometer As mentioned, to complement the interview data, data from the Afrobarometer was used to analyze change over the examined time period. The Afrobarometer is an African-led and nonpartisan survey research project so far conducted in six rounds since 1999. The Afrobarometer conducts high quality statistical data surveys in more than 30 African countries and measures citizen attitudes on democracy and governance, economy, civil society, gender and other topics. The surveys are based on national probability samples and are therefore representative for larger groups. At the national level the sample sizes range from 1,200 to 2,400 large enough to make inferences about all voting age citizens. The average margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percent at a 95 percent confidence level (with a sample size of 1200) or plus or minus 2 percent for a sample size of 2,400 (Afrobarometer, 2015). The survey variables that were used to measure/operationalize support for women as political leaders were: A: Women should have the same chance of being elected to political office as men. and B: Men make better political leaders than women, and should be elected rather than women.. Data for these variables are available for rounds in 2005/2006, 2011/2012 and 2014/2015 1. An egalitarian political culture was measured/operationalized as In our country, women should have equal rights and be treated in the same way as men and a traditional political culture was measures/operationalized as Women have always been subject to traditional 1 Sometimes surveys were made over the year-ends. 15
laws and customs, and should remain so. Data for these variables are available from rounds in 2005/2006 and 2011/2012. The survey variable that was used to measure/operationalize issue ownership was: A: In your opinion, what are the most important problems facing this country that government should address? Data for this variable is available in survey rounds in 2005/2006, 2008/2009, 2011/2012 and 2014/2015. 3.1.3 Inter-Parliamentary Union All the statistics for the increase of women in parliament comes from IPU, the Inter- Parliamentary Union (http://www.ipu.org). However, due to the volatile political situation in Madagascar where politicians tend to quit and be replaced some statistics from the IPU sometimes wasn t coherent with reality. To make sure numbers were correct the statistics was complemented with first-hand information from the UNDP, United Nation Development Program, and EISA, Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy verified during interviews. 3.2 Delimitations A number of delimitations have been made in this study. Because of the limited range of this study it only includes parliamentarians - not senators, ministers, mayors, local councilors or village leaders. Additionally, this study only analyses descriptive representation which is the number of women in parliament, not their substantive representation which is the effect that increase actually has in society. This study also has a demarcation in time and covers the time period 2005-2015 in an attempt to analyze the time period from before to after the coup d état which took place 2009 in Madagascar. Further research is therefore needed in order to understand the development of women s representation in other institutions, to measure the actual impact of the increase in women s political representation and a to get better understanding of the historical development. 3.3 Limitations of the study There are a number of factors that limit the study and are therefore worth mentioning here. Having chosen Madagascar, one difficulty was the amount of time it took to get a network that could provide valuable and relevant contacts. A slight underestimation of the work and time required to contact and set up meetings with relevant interview objects has affected the data collection. There was an unexpected resistance from people, mostly lower level civil servants, journalists and politicians, who did not want to participate due to the subject of my study. Politics, and especially elections, are sensitive issues in Madagascar due to its political past. It is also very rare for students to come and perform this kind of research which may have induced some skepticism. In general, it was easier to meet with people that worked within civil society and international organizations than with politicians, which limits the conclusions that can be drawn about the role of political parties and elites on the increase of women s political 16
representation. Had I stayed more than nine weeks and had the culture been more open to discuss politics the possibility for more interviews would have been given. In order to thoroughly explore the subject the goal was to interview with about twenty people. I contacted approximately fifty different people and organizations. Twenty three appointments for meetings were made, of which eleven were cancelled and not possible to reschedule due to reasons on their part or my limited stay. There were two complementing data collections that I had planned to do in order to increase the validity of my study, but that due to external factors were not possible to follow through on. Since the interview results and statistical data regarding the effect of issue ownership on the decrease of support for women as political leaders were strong and coherent I wanted to pursue that further. The idea was to get a hold of election manifests from both elections before and after the coup to see what issues parties and candidates used during their candidature. In Madagascar most of the campaigning takes place face to face and in rallies. Through contacts I got with a printing company to try and get a hold of election manifests but the attempt was unsuccessful, either they did not want to give them to me or they didn t have them. The other data collection I had planned to perform was to triangulate results regarding effects of media bias on the decrease of support for women s political leadership. The plan was to examine the number of articles about men versus the number of articles about women the political section of the three biggest newspapers in issues before and after the coup. However, online archives are not available from that many years back and I could not find library that had newspaper archives in Antananarivo during my stay. Although not crucial, it is worth mentioning that all the interviews but one were conducted in French my third language and their second language. Although no notice was taken that things got lost in translation this is important to mention. 3.4 Source criticism There are a number of challenges when evaluating information given in interviews. For example, there is the question of time perspective. When interviewing people only once, at the end of the analyzed time period there is always reason to be careful with conclusions. It would be reasonable to assume that people have a better conception of what is happening now rather than ten years ago. The closer in time a source is to the event the more reliable it is and therefore the time perspective was especially compromised when it came to interview subjects within the international community. Often contracts only last three to five years within the UN and other international organizations and institutions. To compensate for this I tried to find interview subjects that were Malagasy rather than foreigners so that even if they didn t have the same position some years ago, at least they were still in Madagascar during the period I am examining. It has also been important to consider the implications of tendency, the bias where participants like to highlight their accomplishments and veil their failures. A lot of the 17
participants had a clear tendency for bias when being asked about their own importance for women s increased representation. Both civil society and the international community representatives had strong incentives to exaggerate their efforts. Therefore, the participation of independent persons like students, the civil servant and the lawyer was important to balance the answers given by more biased subjects. Furthermore, finding subjects who are central for the subject at hand proved to be a challenge, politics being a sensitive subject in Madagascar. All participants in this study were central for a certain theory or issue, as described above. However, there was a lack of central participants to understand the role of political parties and elites on the increase of women in parliament. The lack of interest and will for representatives of parties and political elites to participate in this study resulted in mainly secondary, and not primary information regarding this issue. 3.5 Research ethics To ensure high ethical standards for conducting research all interview objects were informed of the purpose of the study. They were asked if it was ok to record the interview and that they could stop the interview at any time and they were informed that they could ask to have their participation withdrawn and that they could have the finished results sent to them. No compensation in any form was given to the participants. All participants were given a copy of the purpose of the Minor Fields Study scholarship from Sida. 4 Madagascar 4.1 Understanding the Malagasy history and political system In order to understand an analysis of political trends in Madagascar a certain understanding of its society is needed. The long history of military coups and constant political volatility has created a special environment that has characterized the political system and shaped the mentality of the Malagasy people. The following is therefore an attempt to give a contextual understanding to facilitate the interpretation of the discussion. 4.1.1 History Madagascar gained independence in 1960 after 63 years of French colonial rule. In the early 70 s the military seized power with the goal of creating a social paradise. That goal was far from reached and instead the economy went into free-fall. By 1982 the government was forced to implement a structural adjustment program demanded from the International Monetary Fund. Combined, all of this has had long lasting effects on the Malagasy economic system and today it is estimated that 92 percent of the Malagasies live on less than 2 dollars per rendering Madagascar the 10th poorest country in the world (World Bank, 2015). The Malagasy history is characterized by military coups going dating back to the early 70 s. The latest one taking place in 2009 when the young mayor of the capital Antananarivo, 18
Andry Rajoelina, with support from the military, staged a coup and deposed the democratically elected president Marc Ravalomanana. At least 135 people were killed and Madagascar was left isolated from the international community, excluded from the African Union and Southern African Development Community (SADC) and deprived of foreign aid and direct investment. A transition period with a power sharing agreement named The Roadmap was implemented in 2011 after pressure from the international community. After many failures to hold elections that were initially planned for 2010, Mr. Hery Rajaonarimampianina was elected president in democratic elections on the 20th of December 2013. Though the political and economic situations remains volatile and many think the new government has failed to improve the state of the country and economy. Parliament has voted for the impeachment of president Rajaonarimampianina numerous times during 2015 (Landguiden, 2015). 4.1.2 Political system Madagascar is a partly free republic in democratic transition (Freedomhouse, 2015). The President is directly elected by absolute majority popular vote for a 5-year term and eligible for a second term. The Prime minister is nominated by the parliament and appointed by the President and appoints the council of ministers. The National Assembly has an upper and lower house with 33 senators and 151 parliamentarians respectively. Twenty Two senators are elected by each of the 22 regions and an additional 11 are elected by the president. The 151 parliamentarians are directly elected through a mixed majoritarian and proportional system where 82 seats are first-past-the post and 64 are proportional seats (CIA Factbook, 2015). Ideology is ascribed little value in Madagascar. The electorate votes for a person - not a party and the left-right scale is not applicable. It is not uncommon that artists and famous people successfully run for office and independent candidates are extremely common. The current parliament has representatives from 54 different parties; 49 seats are held by the party With Andry Rajoelina (MAPAR) that supports the coup maker and former prime minister Andry Rajoelina and 20 seats are held by the party the Ravalomanana Movement that supports former president Marc Ravalomanana who was deposed in the coup d état 2009. Fifty Seven seats are held by various one-person-parties and 25 seats are held by independents. In other words, 82 of the 151 seats are held by candidates that do not have a real party affiliation (IPU, 2014). 19
5 Results and Discussion Previous research show that support for women as political leaders is often a strong predictor of women s political representation (Norris & Inglehart, 2001, p. 134): Figure 1. Correlation between attitudes toward women as political leaders and percentage of women in parliament Though in this study, statistics show contradictory results. From 2005 to 2015, before to after the coup d état on Madagascar in 2009, support for women as political leaders and the percentage of women in parliament go in opposite directions - the support is decreasing while women s representation is increasing: 20
Figure 2. Attitudes toward women as political leaders and percentage of women in parliament in Madagascar from 2005 to 2015 A number of theories have been empirically examined to understand this discrepancy. Political culture, gender stereotypes, media bias and issue ownership could possibly give an understanding to the steep decrease in support for women s political leadership and women s mobilization and civil society, international pressure, gender quotas, the role of political parties and elites and effect of post conflict and democratic transition can help understand the increase in women s representation. 5.1 Decrease in support for women as political leaders Statistics show that from 81.8 percent agreeing that women should have the same chance of being elected to political office as men in 2005, only 60.8 percent agree in 2015. A decrease of 21 percent in ten years, rendering Madagascar in the bottom ten among African countries surveyed, Madagascar had the largest decline by far in the time period examined (Afrobarometer, 2015). Inversely, while only 16.8 percent of the Malagasy agreed that men make better political leaders than women, and should be elected rather than women in 2005, 38.7 percent agreed with the statement in 2015. 21
Figure 3. Attitudes toward women as political leaders in Madagascar 2005 to 2015 Following is an analysis of these results based on the theories described in section 2.1. 5.1.1 Political culture Attitudes toward women as political leaders tend to be more favorable in an egalitarian political culture and more unfavorable in a traditional political culture (Stockemer, 2007, p.483, Norris and Inglehart, 2001, p. 130). Based on results from surveys from the Afrobarometer, Madagascar could be assumed to have an egalitarian culture, which has furthermore been stable during the time period that this study examines. A majority, 79 percent of Malagasies, felt that women should have the same rights and treatment as men in 2005 and in 2011 that percentage was confirmed again (Afrobarometer, 2015). 22
Figure 4. Percentage of egalitarian and traditional attitudes toward women in Madagascar from 2005 to 2011 While the support for women as political leaders have worsened by 21 percent, the egalitarian attitudes in Madagascar are constant, it therefore seems unlikely that political culture can help give an understanding to the decrease in support for women as political leaders. 23
Figure 5. Percent that support women as political leaders and percent that harbor egalitarian attitudes toward women in Madagascar from 2005 to 2011 Many participants said that Malagasies harbor traditional attitudes in terms of gender and that women are expected to take the main responsibility for child rearing and household while the man is the breadwinner and head of the family. However, coherent with the statistics they did not indicate a perceived change over the past ten years. Additionally, the fact that there is a relatively generous social policy for parental leave and that child care often can be provided by grandparents suggests that Madagascar has a somewhat egalitarian political culture. Lack of resources for women, typically associated with a traditional political culture, was however a common problem often brought up in interviews. Additionally, representatives from civil society as well as the international community confirm the notion that Feminism is considered a bad thing aimed at demasculinizing men (representative from a women s NGO, august 2015) and similar comments was not unusual in the interviews. However, as one participant pointed out, those opinions and problems can be found in all cultures. Since the survey data could be triangulated with interview data, the consistent results about political culture indicate that it cannot give an understanding to the decrease in support for women as political leaders in Madagascar during the examined time period. 5.1.2 Gender stereotypes Gender stereotypes are typical behaviors, personality traits and roles associated with men or women and are likely to be activated and reinforced in male biased environments (Bauer, 2014, p.693). The interviews confirmed the notion that there are strong gender stereotypes in Madagascar. Politics is considered more and more dirty business that needs strong and assertive leaders, qualities not stereotypically associated with women. Participants that worked with women candidates told stories about how they often complained about the negative stereotypes they faced in politics. Some also reported that it had gotten worse after the coup and the following crisis, it seems gender roles had been more cemented in difficult times. Scholars also point out the fact that women can sometimes take advantage of gender stereotypes by trying to win support on typical women s issues that require stereotypic female qualities like compassion and caring (Bauer, 2014, p). However, while that might have been an option before the coup, the harsh political environment prevailing after the coup d état in 2009 has not had typical women s issues on the agenda. Rather, it seems plausible to assume that if women candidates and politicians ran as women and evoked female stereotypes with the public it possibly affected their attitudes towards women in politics in a negative way. Interview subjects subsequently stressed the fact that many female candidates lacked experience in how to run a successful campaign, adapting their message to the public. There was consensus amongst the interview subjects that ideology and party matters little to the Malagasies, it is the candidate's image - personality and behavior - that matters. Typically, 24
people were weary with the political and economic crisis that has followed the coup and were certain that a strong leader was needed to solve the problems facing the country. Since these are qualities stereotypically associated with men, it could have played a role in the decrease in support for women as political leaders. Research shows that negative gender stereotypes toward women are more likely to be activated in a male biased environment and many interviews gave testimony that men were dominating the public sphere after the coup. Both the coup maker and the deposed president were men, constantly being talked about and pictured in the media. Additionally, most of the participants in the reconciliation process were men. This change in the environment could have negatively affected attitudes toward women through gender stereotype activation. Since language is an important primer for stereotypes, when asked about this participants confirmed that a politician was always talked about as a he in the radio, which is the most popular medium on Madagascar. This notion is supported by the fact La feuille de Route, the roadmap written by Malagasy political stakeholder together with representatives from SADC, aimed at getting Madagascar out of the crisis, was without exceptions written with the pronoun he when referring to political representatives like parliamentarians, ministers and the president. Tentative conclusions can therefore be drawn that the male biased environment after the coup could have activated gender stereotypes that, in combination with the perceived need for a strong and assertive male leader, have had negative implications for the support for women as political leaders. However, further research is needed to make more valid conclusions. 5.1.3 Media bias The negative portrayal and the underrepresentation of women as well as the stereotypical depiction of women s relationship to men are some of the ways in which the media contributes to negative attitudes toward women as political leaders (Wood, 1994, p.31). Many coherent answers points to the fact that there is a media bias for men in Madagascar. The ongoing election for mayor in Antananarivo during the time of this field study gave many examples of the media's trivialization of women candidates. New haircuts, who used what brand clothing and who was too fat were some of the examples given in interviews. The candidates corporal characteristics were a hot topic and to be beautiful as a female was a big plus for the campaign. Media here is not gender sensitive, they do not prioritize gender questions. During the electoral campaign the media showed what men did and where. Pictures of women were showing haircuts and even portrayed women as sexy girls. It s horrible (Student of political science, august, 2015). When asked, none of the participants could bring examples of marginalization or commodification in the media to mind. All participants agreed that the media has not helped to better the image of women as political leaders and that women are underrepresented in the media. In fact, most participants stressed the fact that women get much less time on the radio 25
which is an important medium in Madagascar. Furthermore most interviews confirmed that most journalists and radio hosts also are male. To triangulate the results, my intention (as described under section 3.3) was to do an analysis on whether there has been a change in women s exposure in the media from before to after the coup. However, since this was not possible it is difficult to draw any conclusions on whether or not media bias can give an understanding to the decrease in support for women as political leaders during the examined time period. 5.1.4 Issue ownership Issue ownership is granted a candidate or politician that is considered to have a better ability to address an important issue and can therefore be favored over others (Petrocik, 1996, p.825). All participants, without exceptions, stressed security and crime as the most important issue facing Madagascar after the coup. These results could also be triangulated with survey data from the Afrobarometer, where it is confirmed that crime and security has become the biggest problem after the coup, according to the Malagasies: Figure 6. Percentage that think that either crime and security, unemployment, development and food shortage, poverty reduction or health issues is the most important problem in Madagascar from 2005 to 2015. Results from both interviews and surveys support the notion that that there could have been a change in issue ownership that has played a role in the decrease in support for women as political leaders. Men are typically deemed to have issue ownership competence when it comes to military and security issues as well as dealing with business and economy while women are favored to handle issues like that require compassion and caretaking like health 26
and development (Petrocik, 1996, p.847). As shown by the statistics, typical instrumental issues owned by men have become more important after than before the coup while compassion issues where women typically are considered to have ownership have stayed constant or are no longer considered as important as before the coup. It is therefore reasonable to assume that due to issue ownership, men are favored as political leaders after than before the coup while support for women s political leadership can have decreased. 5.2 Increase of women s political representation in parliament In spite that the support for women as political leaders has decreased, Madagascar has succeeded to increase women s representation in parliament during the same period. From the election in 2002 until the latest election in 2013 the percentage of women in parliament has increased with 16.78 percent - from 3.75 percent in 2002 to 20.3 percent women in parliament to date. Figure 7. Percentage of women in parliament from 2002 to 2013 (IPU, 2015) Following is an analysis of this trend based on the theories described in section 2.2. 5.2.1 Women s mobilization and civil society Increased representation for women rarely comes without women mobilizing for change and civil society advocating for women s political representation (Krook, 2007, p.370-373) which also seems to be true in the case of Madagascar. Participants confirmed that the political elite in Madagascar is indeed mostly male and that women constantly have to fight and lobby to get their causes on the agenda. Representatives from civil society participating in this study argued that without the women s movement, NGOs and INGOs, grassroots movements and women within the parties pushing for change, we would not have seen this increase in 27
women s political representation. Though, since representatives from civil society have a biased view on their own achievements these statements should be met with some skepticism. However, the fact that other more unbiased participants like the lawyer and civil servant, confirmed these notions, makes the information more reliable. Also, UN representatives confirm, especially because of the lack of efforts from the government's side, that civil society has had a crucial role in increased women s political representation. A number of initiatives after the elections have come from women in politics in collaboration with civil society. The most important being a new women s caucus in the parliament, a body that has never existed before 2014. Also the newly formed Malagasy women s council has become an organization with influence after the coup d état. Many organizations stressed that they worked hard to educate women candidates before the election and gender mainstreaming advocacy has been put on the agenda within the work of the parliament. It also seems that many organizations that work within other areas of development also started integrating gender into their programs, more so than before the coup. One example of this was a program for early warning to detect and deter violence in election where one of the demands for the program was that at least 45 percent of the mediators trained should be women. It is not unreasonable to assume that the passionate work of civil society together with women s mobilization and the increased reflow of foreign aid can give some understanding to the increased number of women parliamentarians. However, all though a job well done is undeniable based on the interviews, it does not seem to be better now than before the coup. Possibly, the resources have increased a bit after the coup but all in all information from interviews suggest that civil society was as an important factor before as after the coup. 5.2.2 Gender quotas Scholars often distinguish between the fast versus the incremental track to increase women s representation. The incremental track requires substantial work from parties and civil society and through, for example, capacity building an increase over time can be achieved. The fast track is often applied in societies where gradual change considered too slow and gender quotas like reserved seats, party quotas or legislative quotas are often used (Dahlerup & Friedenvall, 2006, p.4-6). Based on information given in the interviews, a lot points to the fact that Madagascar was on the incremental track to increase women s political before the coup, and the coup functioned like a catalyst to get on the fast track. Interviews confirm traits typical for the incremental track, like for example lack of resources for women and a strong resistance to quotas existed. Women could have entered politics if they wanted to and worked harder and Women s problems is not a priority, we have more difficult issues to deal with a civil servant said during an interview, regarding comments she got when talked about barriers for women s representation with her colleagues. Over time, civil society and some of the political parties have taken incremental initiatives to increase women s representation and until 2008 no quotas had been adopted on any level of 28
government and no parties had embraced voluntary quotas in neither elective bodies or for internal party leadership. In the wake of the coup, however, a proposal for legal quotas came but was voted down in parliament in 2015 and is now under revisement to be brought back for voting in 2016. Additionally, even though the law to introduce legal quotas did not pass, the government did adopt an objective to increase women s representation to 30 percent after they re-joined SADC in 2014. There were also many indications from interview participants that the two largest parties had introduced voluntary party quotas after for the elections after the coup. Not a fifty fifty policy but an effort had definitely been made to put women on the lists. The general message from interviews was that this initiative made a considerable difference for the positive results in the increased representation for women in the last election. Though, due to the lack of participants central to this issue, it is not possible to draw any conclusions on how these voluntary quotas came to be. Many pointed out the fact though, that party quotas only can have a limited impact in Madagascar since a majority of the candidates run as independents or one person parties, only rendering party quotas effective to a certain point. So even if voluntary gender quotas probably played a big role for the increases in the last election participants point out that a reserved seat policy is needed to achieve further results. 5.2.3 The role of political parties and elites Political parties and elites often take initiatives to increase women s political situation when they see a possible strategic advantage and certain characteristics within party determines how likely they are to take these initiatives (Krook, 2007, p.371). Because of the difficulty to find representatives from the political parties that were willing to participate in this study, all understanding regarding their role in the increase of women s political representation come from non central sources and should be interpreted with caution. Representatives from civil society working with the women caucus, the civil servant and gender experts from the UN confirm that there have been initiatives from the parties to nominate more women after the coup which has had a positive effect on the increase of women s political representation. This has been especially clear in the two biggest parties MAPA and the Ravalomanana Movement. This is coherent with the research that shows that a party is more likely to make efforts towards women s increased representation after a crisis and if another party takes measures (Caul, 1999, p.94). Further investigation to find out what motivated the parties and if there are certain characteristics within these parties that facilitated the initiatives, is needed. It cannot be excluded that these initiatives has come from negative motivation, after some concerns were raised in interviews. It is possible that women have been handpicked for certain purposes and will actually lack real power and function as puppets when in office. Nor can it be excluded that the initiatives are empty gestures from the parties to try and prove 29
to different stakeholders that they are committed to women s issues, when in fact they are not. 5.2.4 International pressure International pressure has an escalating importance for the increasing political representation of women, especially in the wake of conflict when international development aid is sometimes conditioned with requirements of increased gender equality (Paxton et al., 2006, p219). The international community has indeed had a strong presence in Madagascar and foreign aid makes up a large portion of the state s budget (World Bank, 2015). After the coup in 2009, Madagascar was excluded from the African Union and SADC, the donors cut of development aid and the EU and UN posed sanctions. All foreign aid and direct investment was stopped and combined, all of these factors had a catastrophic effect on the Malagasy economy making the support from the international community a priority to regain. There have been no new ratifications of treaties with importance for women s political representation in the time period that this study examines and it is therefore unlikely they can give any understanding of the increase. There have however been programs launched specifically to increase women s representation by the UN. After the coup d état they specifically targeted women voters and candidates with different projects in an attempt to increase women s representation to 30 percent in 2012, and 50 percent in 2015. All of the departments within the UN have gender experts aiming at empowering women one way or another and the message is clear that women s political representation is high on the agenda. INGOs working in Madagascar that participated in this study confirmed that working with women candidates before the elections in 2013 was a priority. UN representatives participating in this study were reluctant to admit that they actually pressured the government and other stakeholders to increase the number of women in parliament. Nor did they admit that regaining development aid was conditioned with demands of equality. Rather, they wanted to about the help and support they have given. Though other less biased but still central participants like the civil servant and civil society representatives stressed the fact that it was crucial for Madagascar to get development aid and direct investment back in order to revitalize the failing economy, admitting that there was a strong will to accommodate the suggestions from the international community. Although they also stressed the importance of the international community as a normative function for guidance and support - not only for pressure and conditions. The omnipresence of the international institutions like SADC and the UN in the post-coup reconciliation was confirmed by as several different interview subjects and it is quite safe to assume that it can give some understanding to the increased political representation for women after the coup. 5.2.5 Effects of post conflict and democratic transition Efforts to increase women s political representation often come during democratic transition. The wake of a conflict often brings with it rapid political change, and if stakeholders take advantage of this opportunity there are higher than normal chances to increase women s 30
political representation (Hughes, 2009, p.196-197). In Madagascar, a lot points in the direction that the effects from the coup and the following transition can give an understanding to the increased percentage of women in parliament. After lengthy negotiations, la Feuille de route, or the roadmap, to get Madagascar out of the crisis following the coup, was created in 2011 and signed by 17 different political stakeholders in September. The roadmap was created by SADC together with representatives for different political parties and organizations and stipulated how Madagascar would get out of crisis and gain back the confidence and support of the international community. Gender equality is mentioned in two paragraphs of which one explicitly stipulates that the transitional congress should adhere to the criteria of fair and equitable gender representation. Figure 8. Copy of 7 in La Feuille de Route Pour la Sortie de Crise à Madagascar (www.primature.gov.mg, 2015) According to the participants in the interviews this document has been an important narrative for many political decisions during the democratic transition. Also important to note is the involvement of SADC, which according to some interview subjects was a sensitive matter during the negotiations. To follow these stipulations was a condition from the international community in order for Madagascar to regain its support. It is therefore reasonable to assume that this condition has had an impact on the increased percentage of women from before to after the coup. Statistics show that the biggest increase during the period that this study examines was in fact when the transitional national congress was appointed supporting the notion that the effect of post conflict and democratic transition did play a role in the increase of women s political representation. 31
Figure 9. Percentage increase of women in parliament from previous election 2002 to 2015 (IPU, 2014). The interviews, available documents and the statistics show coherent results that the effects of the post-coup democratic transition played a role in the increase of women s political representation. It also seems plausible to assume, given information from interview subjects, that other political stakeholders like civil society, the international community and political parties took advantage of the political situation after the coup which may have further amplified the effects on women s increased representation. 6 Conclusion The purpose of this study was to get an understanding of the discrepancy between the decreased support for women as political leaders on the one hand, and the increased political representation for women on the other, in post-coup d état Madagascar. Results that could be triangulated support the notion that political culture cannot give a better understanding to the decreased support for women s political leadership. Contrariwise, reliable data from different sources suggest that issue ownership can have played a role in the decrease. Coherent information from interviews suggests that media bias and gender stereotypes are not favorable for women in Madagascar. However, only tentative conclusions can be made as to how they may have played a role in the decreased support for women as political leaders during the examined time period. A possible interaction effect between media bias and gender stereotypes where a worsened media bias after the coup primed 32